Fast Food Strikes Continue to Roll

Thousands and thousands of fast-food and other low-wage workers this week have walked off the job in a series of one-day strikes in cities across the country. They are demanding a living wage, no retaliation for striking and the right to join unions. Those strikes are continuing today and likely into next week too.

In Detroit, Claudette Wilson works two part-time jobs, one at Burger King, where she makes $7.40 an hour, and the other at Jep’s Pizza. She told MSNBC:

A lot of times we’ve been understaffed, so I had to do multiple positions, long shifts, for the same amount of money [without overtime]. At 40 weeks in a year, that’s supposed to be $15,000, right? Is that a lot of money to you? That’s if you get 40 hours a week. Now a lot of people don’t get 40 hours.

On Thursday in Chicago, Subway worker Felix Mendez, who makes just $8.25 an hour despite two years on the job, said:

I’m striking because I can’t afford to provide my family with the basics. I serve food all day long but I have to work two jobs so my children don’t go hungry.